Archive for December, 2008

I hope you all are enjoying the holidays as much as I am! A few highlights of my Christmas:

spending time with family, including the Professor’s parents and aunt and uncle, as well as several of my aunts, my uncle, and cousins

going to the Grand Ole Opry (thanks, Professor’s aunt and uncle), which was a new and fun experience for me

getting lovely new yarn from the Professor for Christmas (more on this later)

Now that the New Year has almost arrived, I’m thinking about knitting. All right, I’m always thinking about knitting, but I do have some specific ideas and finished things to show and talk about.

First, I can’t wait to knit this. I’ve got the yarn, I’ve got the needles, I’m ready to swatch and roll! But soft, what light on yonder knitting basket breaks? I just have too many things going right now to start something else. Clearly, some discipline is in order. So, here is my plan for finishing items: I have 9 active projects, and 5 must go before I can add another!

The Cowl. Begun as a soothing travel knit, I bound it off last night. It’s drying now, and finished shots will be posted tomorrow. So much for the cowl.

The Professor’s Socks. So close! Really, these just need an extra blocking (I had to take out the toe of the first sock and add more length), and they will be history. Two of Five.

Christmas Presents #1 and #2. We’re doing this exchange around Jan. 9, so these are my next priority.

The Must-Have Cardi. I am ashamed that this sweater has languished so long. Also, I’d love to wear it a few times before spring!

Thanks for the comments on the dishrags. For those wondering, I used the Ballband Dishcloth pattern and Peaches’n’Creme yarn (I love the classics). I’ve found that they hold up excellently to all kinds of abuse, including machine washing and drying. Since each one takes about an hour from cast-on to bind-off, how can you lose?

In a desperate attempt to avoid working a noble effort to show some actual knitting on this blog, I present to you: three dishrags.

This second one reminds me of the Kraft mac and cheese box.

And number three is a leftover melange. It may be my favorite. You might notice it is also larger than the other two (or rather that they are smaller); this was a pattern-reading error on my part. The bigger size is the correct one, but I can personally vouch for the fact that either size works beautifully. The extra repeat just makes them a bit more square.

Oh dear, another pictureless post. This time, however, I have an excellent excuse: I can’t broadcast photos of my Christmas knitting before the gifts are given!

This year, I’ve finally seen reason (somewhat). The amount of knitting to be done is much smaller than in years past, and there is more time to do it in. Without further ado, let’s assess:

1. One fair-isle vest (prognosis: good. It is about 30% complete already).
2. One pair of socks (prognosis: possible. They are men’s socks, but I am already nearly done with the first leg. The Achilles heel of this project is the dearth of yarn; I’m waiting for the delivery man to come so I can really crank on these).
3. Another pair of socks (prognosis: excellent. Worsted-weight yarn makes super-fast socks. One is already complete, but I do have to rip out the toe and add a smidgen more length).
4. Dishrag-stravaganza. (prognosis: excellent! What’s not to love about a useful knit that you can crank out in an hour and dole out to everyone you know?)

That’s all! Can you believe it? No afghans or ginormous sweaters or anything! And to top it all off, I have several multiple-hour travel periods in which to knit even more.